Americans know how to do graduations, don’t they. They somehow pack out entire football stadiums just to watch the students walk across the stage in a cap and gown.

Then there’s the whole thing of throwing the cap in the air in exuberant joy, as the sun beams down and the graduating students leap in the air, full of excitement for the future and momentarily unaware of the enormous student debt that will loom over them for years to come.

When I graduated, a couple mates and I threw our caps in the air only for them to fly away in the wind and drizzle. As they rolled along the ground, always slightly out of reach, I pathetically ran after mine while trying not to trip over the rented gown I was wearing that was two sizes too big. The cap eventually came to rest in a muddy puddle.

And yes, you’re right, it is a fitting visual metaphor for how my life has gone since that graduation ceremony.

One college student has decided to really embrace her graduation photos though, not by throwing the cap or leaping in the air, but by posing with a 14ft alligator.

I’m not sure if it’s a visual metaphor – perhaps it shows the trying circumstances many people must overcome to graduate, or that in the end we’ll all get eaten by wild animals, thereby trivialising the whole college process – or not. Either way, they are pretty cool photos.

Makenzie Noland, a student at Texas A&M University, posed in her cap and gown with the alligator – called Big Tex – to celebrate completing her degree in wildlife and fisheries sciences.

The student has been interning at a Beaumont rescue centre, home to about 450 alligators, crocodiles and other reptiles, where she has developed a special bond with Big Tex.

She says he responds to his name and reacts to hand signals whenever Makenzie gets in the pond to feed him.